nlpg application (potboiler theatre): Sound & Story Lab R&D
music & theatre in our work
Music and collaboration with music makers has ran throughout Potboiler projects, in small and large ways.
The key projects below are the artistic pathway that has taken the company to this point now, providing the creative kernels, learning and ideas that we will play with. scale up and build on in our 2026 Sound & Story Lab R&D.
The Rhapsodies & The Inn: music to connect with an audience
In 2014, we paired up theatre actors and gigging musicians in a tour of Stoke pubs, spinning reimagined local legends on unexpecting drinkers in The Rhapsodies (Arts Council England) and locking audiences in for a farcical drama underscored with a resident live band, in The Inn.
We learnt music has an incredible power to invite audiences in. to bridge the world of the pub, of the city, of where we are now and an imagined one, helping people take a leap of faith, from something known to something unknown.
Actor and musician became a key partnership, a collaboration. In the world of pubs, working with recognised local musicians helped translate the show to a local audience and help them feel yes, this is for me.
2. GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS: music as storytelling
In 2017’s, GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS, we knew music would be vital to telling this subtle story. For the first time we collaborated with a composer with theatre experience who understood scripted work. Their subtle 90s-inspired composition was vital in transporting us to a specific moment in time. With its originality and thoughtfulness however this didn’t become something nostalgic. Instead it helped audiences access the psychological world of the characters.
ORIGINAL music could offer new dimensions to story. THE COMPOSER/DIRECTOR/WRITER COLLABORATION COULD UNLOCK new depths.
In 2020, we discovered similar when working with a composer on audio pieces our youth grows (Urban Wilderness commission) and Instructions to Those Leaving Planet Earth (Lichfield Cathedral commission) - that music could help audiences access the intended tone and emotion, and give them a key to enter into the characters’ worlds.
3. STOKE A LOVE STORY: Creating a show’s sound world
In 2019, we staged our biggest show yet, Stoke, a Love Story (Arts Council England) an epic story of the city and five residents trying to make their way in it, taking place in the grand surroundings of a working Methodist chapel.
To create this world we went big, working with a Composer/Musical Director, Sound Designer and four-piece live band.
Sound design, choral performance, solo singing, lyrical writing and live music was an incredibly complex picture to hold together but opened a new theatrical scale we had not accessed before.
Music helped us move from character the character and realised a sweeping narrative arc.
For a story about a city and its history, musical expansion was key.
4. GAY STOKE: MUSIC AS CONNECTION
In 2025’s heritage & participation project, GAY STOKE (Historic England, Everyday Heritage grant) music held an intensely personal role.
Through our session with members of the North Midlands LGBT Older Peoples Group we discovered how music shaped moments in time, soundtracked memories and took people back to places they hadn’t been in long time.
As well as being an intense solo experience however we also discovered it was incredibly communal one. One that enabled individuals to connect in the present, to each other as they revisited the past.
and when it came to sharing their story with an audience, Music again became a vital tool in providing them with the bravery, the armour to do so.
outside of potboiler…
In producing Bradford City of Culture’s closing ceremony, Brighter Still (Emily Lim and Dan Canham), co-director Kat Boon oversaw the process of a new composition being created for a large scale movement/dance-led mass participatory performance. From this the symbiotic relationship between choreography and music making was particularly inspiring.
Another produced project, The Bradford Progress (Jeremy Deller and Paraorchestra, co-produced by Bradford UK City of Culture), a 36 hour musical journey across the landscape of Bradford involving over 200 musicians and musical groups, introduced the powerful idea that music can be a key part of identity, social and geographical belonging.
We are excited to explore these insights into the role of music in performance in the context of Potboiler’s work.
Co-Director Kat Hughes XXX